Welcome to the online consultation

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, is developing a Handbook to provide practical guidance to States and other stakeholders on how the rights to water and sanitation can be incorporated into law, policy, budgets, and service provision. Please click here to access the online consultation of the draft Handbook.

Q&A: How can you contribute to the Handbook through this online consultation?

What: This online consultation has been designed to share the first draft of the Handbook for realising the rights to water and sanitation, and to gather comments, ideas and experience to illustrate and explain how the rights can be realised.

Who: The UN Special Rapporteur would like to hear from all potential users of the Handbook, from those who have experience in working to realise the rights to water and sanitation, as well as from those who would like to understand more about the rights.

How: Different sections of the Handbook will be posted onto this website on a fortnightly basis, each section addressing a different aspect of the rights to water and sanitation. You are invited to read the section (available as pdf) and provide comments in the comments section below. You can also respond to others’ comments. We have prepared a brief set of questions to guide you. Please see the planned timetable for uploading the different sections below. You can also write direct to handbook@hr2ws.org with any comments you may have.

When: The online consultation will start in mid-January and has been extended until 12 May 2014. The planned timetable is as follows:

17 January 2014 / Chapter 1.1. Incorporating the rights to water and sanitation into legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks27 January 2014 / Chapter 1.2.Incorporating the rights to water and sanitation into legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks6 February 2014 / Chapter 2. Incorporating the rights to water and sanitation into financing and budgeting processes5 March 2014 / Chapter 0. Introductory chapter31 March 2014 / Chapter 3. Service delivery for the realisation of the rights to water and sanitation9 April 2014 / Chapter 4. Advocacy, awareness-raising and capacity building for the rights to water and sanitation14 April 2014 / Short Essay 1. Non-discrimination and the rights to water and sanitation17 April 2014 / Short Essay 2. Participation and the rights to water and sanitation18 April 2014 / Chapter 5. Accountability: Justiciability and monitoring

UPDATE:

Many thanks for your extensive, informative and invaluable comments! We will now be working to finalise the draft, incorporating your comments and preparing the handbook for publication. The launch of the handbook will take place during the UN Special Rapporteur’s final session at the Human Rights Council in September 2014. Information will be provided on this website, so please watch this space.

Many thanks for your engagement,

Catarina de Albuquerque
UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation